I am a writer, scientist, and educator who focuses on how we think about how we think. Here you'll find reports on the latest brain-related research, analyses of the social and biological aspects of brain health, and some opinionating. My work has appeared at the New York Times Motherlode blog, Forbes, Slate, Grist, The Scientist, Scientific American guest blogs, MIT Tech Review, American Scientist, The Scientist, Backpacker, Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine, and in other local and regional publications.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

We Can Now Add Forced Sweating To The Faux Autism Treatment List

What’s the latest “science” they’re trying to sell you to treat autism? Infrared sauna therapy. Yep, you read that right. According to a recent wire story, a company that peddles saunas has teamed up with Generation Rescue–Jenny McCarthy’s Generation Rescue–to “bring awareness to the therapeutic benefits of infrared saunas to the autism community.” The company is kindly offering “half-size” saunas to accommodate sweating out the half-pint autistic child in your life. From what I can tell, these things are not cheap. Quoth the article:

Studies have shown that sauna therapy is a valuable clinical tool for treating autoimmune, toxicant-induced and other chronic health problems. Far infrared sauna therapy offers a component of depuration and offers a variety of health benefits to regular users including the removal of toxins in the body leading to increased health and brain function. More …

Odd that. The three articles they cite to support their assertions show no such thing. The first paper they offer isn’t a study, it’s a review. That means it contains no original data. It appears to be a general discussion of the use of saunas, a la Scandinavians, for treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pain, and “addiction.” A second paper they cite is also a review of other studies and thus also contains no original data. Worth noting, this review paper says the following about saunas:

Despite much attention given to saunas with heaters emitting at specific electromagnetic frequencies, research to date suggests that there is no difference in toxicant excretion rates between perspiration that occurs through infrared sauna, dry or wet regular saunas, or exercise.

In other words, according to their own citation, Generation Rescue has teamed up with this sauna company to sell you to make you “aware” of something with effects you could achieve … by simply exercising.

Their third and final citation is this one. It does contain original data, but not about the effectiveness of saunas for autism. No. It’s a survey of naturopaths about the techniques they use for “detoxification therapies.” To add to this featherweight accumulation of evidence, on its Website, the sauna company offers up the expert opinion of one Dutch physician … who died in 1738. His apparent legacy to later generations was the advice that keeping your head cool and your feet warm would keep the doctor away. Daily apples, cold heads, warm feet. Got it.

Infrared sauna therapy might have some benefits for some health conditions (although I’d not recommend trying it for the autoimmune disease known as multiple sclerosis). But nothing in the lone study or in the two reviews cited specifically supports effectiveness of infrared sauna for autism. That might be in part because there’s not an evidence base for asserting that autism is a condition that necessitates “detoxification,” although there certainly is a cottage industry built up around selling this idea–and treatments for it–to concerned families. And it’s not the first time Jenny McCarthy and Generation Rescue have been associated with such interventions. We’ve had hyperbaric oxygen therapy, chelation, Lupron (essentially chemical castration), and industrial strength bleach used against children with autism in pursuit of this heavy metal phantom. Is it any surprise that if it’s OK to subject children to confinement in HBOT chambers, injections, and bleach enemas, forced sweating could so easily be added to the list?

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I’m surprised you needed to undertake a search ? You should do your research before you write an article. Particularly if tone of the primary arguments surrounds toxicology and autism.

While your irrelevant link dump is noted, please tell me how mercury is excreted via sweating. You know the topic at hand?

It’s already quite well known there are differing research surrounding toxicology and autism. Though I’m surprised you haven’t elucidated the results ?

So the author is supposed to discuss every study that involves toxicology even though they are completely irrelevant to forcing child autists into saunas? Do none of these children have livers or kidneys?

Sad fact is the word “toxin” is bandied about so often and without any understanding of what a toxin actually nor the kinetics of uptake and excretion. I’m sure it’s uncomfortable for a lot of you to have the light of day shone on your abusive “treatments” but I’d get used to it if I were you.

We’ve been selling saunas for 30 years. Unfortunately no sauna (infrared or traditional Scandinavian style) is going to do much in the way of detoxification. The best you can expect is for the sweat to push out any dirt or debris that had settled in the pores. As far as infrared saunas go, they’re not the kind of environment most people expect from something called a sauna.

As a matter of fact, we’ve had customers compare their so called “infrared sauna” to sitting in a closet with a space heater – which, ironically, would provide the same amount of “detoxification” as one of these infrared enclosures. As the article above points out, any “detoxification” that you can achieve in a sauna can also be easily achieved by any other activity or enclosure that causes you to sweat.

This is just another lie that many manufacturers are using to sell their cheap. usually Chinese made, infrared rooms. Along the same lines, no sauna is going to help you lose weight. Any perceived “weight loss” is only water weight, and will be regained by re-hydrating. Failure to do so can lead to illness, and in extreme cases, death.

These lies are giving all saunas a bad name, which is very unfortunate. True Scandinavian style saunas have not only been enjoyed by cultures around the world for centuries, but really do have some real health benefits, including increased circulation (great not only internally but also externally for skin, hair and nails), increased relaxation and the ability to aid in relief of sinus congestion.

Before subjected your child, autistic or otherwise, to any type of remedy or “cure” please check with your doctor. Inappropriate use of a sauna can be incredibly dangerous, especially for a child. Always make sure anyone using a sauna remains well hydrated. Overall, remember, a sauna is supposed to be enjoyable. If you, or your child, feel ill, light headed or uneasy exit the sauna and cool down immediately.

Wow! Really? Is this Forbes or a snarky opinion piece off of LBRB? What I read here is “I have a gut feeling there’s more I can be doing for my kid with autism, but if I just slam every treatment that’s too much trouble for me to look into, then I won’t feel so bad.” What happened to investigative journalism? Did you even talk to any parents who’ve tried this? What is your answer for the oxidative stress that our children suffer? How about the mitochondrial disease? Encephalopathy?

Perhaps you should read the article and Dr. Willingham’s stated objectives. This is about demonstrating false claims of “autism cures” and the deceptive use of studies. Anecdotes are worthless because you need a control and a treatment group of sufficient size to compare if there are any differences.

The use of saunas to “treat” autism is just sick ritual purification voodoo that has no benefit and can be extremely dangerous. It’s so hypocritical that parents who wail about ASD research and reject findings which identify risk factors would subject their children to unproven, untested and dangerous snake-oil.

The subject of this blog is the marketing of saunas by Generation Rescue/Jenny McCarthy.

The media director of Age of Autism has again spammed the comments section from her vast repository of off-topic subjects.

You do realize don’t you, that taking putting your child into a sauna, might cause hyperthermia and dehydration. Why would you risk doing this to a child?

Oxidative stress? Mitochondrial disease? Encephalopathy? I doubt you even know what those conditions are.

Dr. Willingham has written about the marketing of another *treatment/cure* that has no scientific basis, which is being touted by Generation Rescue and Jenny McCarthy. Do try to stay on topic. Do try to restrict your comments to therapies that have a proven track record of assisting autistic children to reach their potential…such as ABA.

Number one, I unfortunately posses binders and binders of information and lab reports regarding oxidative stress, mitochondrial disease and enchephalopathy and know more about it than I ever wanted to.

Number two, the point of my comment was that this opinion piece was very one sided. I would expect fairer coverage from a mainstream source such as Forbes. She could have at least presented the reasons a person would consider this therapy THEN responded with her eye-rolling-look-at-these-stupid-parents-who’ll-try-anything opinion.

And number three, your comment about sticking to proven therapies such as ABA is laughable at best and barbaric to any child who is so sick that they’re slamming their head against the wall to relieve the pain from their enchephalopathy.

I don’t have time to argue with someone who is simply regurgitating the company line they’ve been fed. Please do the research yourself to see what is happening to this generation of children.

It’s not just an opinion piece; it’s a look at what the peddlers involved offered in the way of scientific evidence for what they’re selling and an analysis that concludes … there isn’t any evidence. That’s typical for these out-of-left-field “therapies” based on disproven hypotheses about autism … or any other disorder, really.